ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Friday his new year resolution was to implement universal health care in Pakistan and launch a project to ensure no one slept hungry in the South Asian nation of 208 million people.
In October, Pakistan was labelled one of the top ranked countries in Asia for its social protection intervention amid the COVID-19 pandemic with the launch of the Ehsaas, or Empathy, program, an ambitious poverty alleviation plan to help the country’s poorest gain better access to health care, education, and employment.
“My New Year resolution for 2021 is to complete two projects. One, universal health coverage to all our citizens,” Khan said in a tweet.
Our Ehsaas programme provides social security & our health card scheme provides the poor with proper medical access. My New Year resolution for 2021 is to complete two projects. One, universal health coverage to all our citizens. It has begun in KP & will soon in Punjab & GB.
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) January 1, 2021
“Two, we will start our most ambitious nationwide project “Koi Bhuka Na Soyay“(No one should sleep hungry in Pak) under Ehsaas prog. By the end of the yr these 2 projects will move us closer to our goal of making Pak a welfare state,” the PM added.
We hope other provinces will replicate this prog. Two, we will start our most ambitious nationwide project "Koi Bhuka Na Soyay"(No one should sleep hungry in Pak)under Ehsaas prog. By the end of the yr these 2 projects will move us closer to our goal of making Pak a welfare state
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) January 1, 2021
A new study conducted by UNICEF, UN and the International Policy Center for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG) had assessed social protection responses in Asia, “focusing on an extensive mapping and overview of how social protection measures were deployed by the countries in Asia and the Pacific region in the response to the COVID-19 crisis.”
“The study reveals that Pakistan covers highest number of responses to social protection in Asia through Ehsaas Emergency Cash,” a statement released in October said.
